Hello wonderful patrons! Now that Volume 2 is complete on scribblehub I'm posting it here as an ePub.
The usual caveats apply—this is an automated file so there could be hella formatting glitches, et cetera. But for those of you who'd prefer an offline ebook version of the story as it app...
2025-04-13 16:26:01 +0000 UTC View PostBut when they arrive on the command deck, a debriefing isn’t what awaits them.
Sykora’s brow furrows as she sees the yellow light shining over the door. They step through and suddenly there’s a muffling silence, like they’ve entered a noise-proofed room. The Princess ahems. “Why i...
2025-04-12 01:17:33 +0000 UTC View PostThis is the first bit of a chapter that stretched long enough it's becoming two chapters. There's gonna be a lot of shuffling in this part, I think. Ch 48 will probably be arriving later today.
I'd also like to take a moment to let all my new members know that these are uncorrected first dr...
2025-04-10 20:15:26 +0000 UTC View PostThere are days that Ajax of the Black Pike thinks that his life couldn’t get any better. Days in the morning mess, surrounded by friends and comrades. Lifting in the bleeding-edge gym, shooting the shit with the other NCOs, the gravity field machines, the hardlight sparring targets. Standing gu...
2025-04-09 02:37:32 +0000 UTC View PostGrant follows his wife—now in a form-fitting tank top and her promised itty-bitty shorts, both in scarlet—out of the lift, and along the curving ring of the hab level to the rec center. Every Taiikari they pass stops their chatter or their tasks to acknowledge her somehow. Navy marines set as...
2025-04-05 19:08:02 +0000 UTC View PostAjax’s inexpressive anticomp plate swivels up to him. “Now, sire?”
“Why not?” Grant fans himself with the lip of his shirt. “I’m warmed up.”
Ajax is still for a few seconds. “All right,” he concludes. He circles away from Grant and points at a spot on the practice ...
2025-04-03 22:08:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello, merciful patrons. For your viewing pleasure today: The Princess of the Black Pike, in full res and sans book title.
I'm looking around now for an artist to do volume 2's cover. This commission was funded with your generous contributions--you have my sincere thanks for that.
BTW...
2025-04-02 16:30:09 +0000 UTC View PostGrant takes a beat to let Vora’s suggestion breathe in his mind. “We aren’t gonna pretend I’m the one running the show. Right?”
“Not the whole show, sire,” Vora says. “But as a Prince rather than a Prince Consort, you’d be the second-most powerful person on the ve...
2025-04-02 02:40:29 +0000 UTC View PostGrant releases his javelin. It flies from their balconied booth, shivers pitifully in the air and sinks shallowly into the turf, just inside the widest pale ring chalked into the scarlet grass. “It’s the spin,” he says. “I have to figure out how to make it spin.”
“It’s all in ...
2025-03-30 21:23:03 +0000 UTC View Post“I am going to conference with my husband now,” Sykora says, with gunmetal calm. “One moment.”
Vora can't hide the anxiety in her voice. “Yes, Majesty.”
“Grant, dove.” Sykora’s grip is claw-tight on his arm. “Would you kindly press that mute for me? You have the wi...
2025-03-28 19:10:44 +0000 UTC View Post“All right, gals.” Waian's voice emerges from the speakers wired to her console. She’s doing that weird metal-hand connection thing again, to better control the deck's subsystems; her fleshy body’s mouth doesn’t move. “Meet the Eqtorans.”
The holoprojector on the command deck...
2025-03-25 20:53:16 +0000 UTC View PostSmell that? That new-volume smell? Welcome to the third tale of the Taiikari empire, gang. Oooh am I excited for this volume. It's going to be a lot of fun, I hope.
You're going to notice a bit of recap here and there in this chapter. My goal there is to let people start at later volumes an...
2025-03-23 20:43:19 +0000 UTC View PostGrant exhales as Sykora pushes the plunger.
“There we go,” she says. “It’s supposed to start immediately.” A teal drop beads at the tip of the empty applicator. She sets it on the nightstand.
Outside their suite’s picture window, the golden sky of Ramex has dulled to a dee...
2025-03-21 03:29:28 +0000 UTC View PostHello folks. Here there be SPOILERS for those of you who aren’t caught up on the advance chapters.
And probably spoilers for the future of Princess of the Void as well, although it’s nothing you haven’t already guessed.
Okay so! We've got a free Grant, but he's still not ...
2025-03-20 01:01:58 +0000 UTC View Post“Crew of the Black Pike.”
Sykora stands at the command deck’s balustraded edge. Her voice booms out across the sweep-lit bridge. “Once again, we’ve been tasked with driving the Yellow Comets from above Ramex. Once again, we are en route in the Empress’s name to defend her subjec...
2025-03-19 23:06:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe Marquis Consort’s mind ventilates out the side of his skull in a chunky mist of red and pink.
Paxea shrieks like a banshee and leaps for Grant’s outstretched gun. Grant swings it around too slow. Her tail lashes around his arm and pinions it straight, bashing his elbow again and aga...
2025-03-19 21:20:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe shuttle spirals onto the carefully manicured yard before Narika’s borrowed bungalow. It’s an incautious landing that sets several small fires on the turf and cracks the concrete.
Sykora strides from the bay door before it’s even finished opening, still sheathed in her vac suit. Pa...
2025-03-19 20:08:22 +0000 UTC View Post“Countess.” Sykora buckles her pistol to her hip. “I regret I couldn’t try Tikani’s coffee. I have to go.”
Wenzai rummages on an overcrowded kitchen counter. “I figured as much.” She pulls a silvery bullet-shaped thermos from Tikani's chaotic coffee rig. “That’s why we...
2025-03-17 20:26:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Just a sketch still, and just a lil' piece of it.
But in celebration of our 300 reader milestone over on scribblehub, I thought you all might want an early sneak peek at the Princess of ...
2025-03-13 05:33:11 +0000 UTC View Post“This amrita is just gorgeous.” Wenzai takes a deep sniff of her glass. “Is this a Pakkar 60?”
Paxea beams. “You know your spirits.” The Marquess has arrived late to join them for dinner.
“I do hope Thror’s on the road to recovery.” Tikani holds a hand up. “Kroie, ...
2025-03-13 03:44:59 +0000 UTC View Post“So how did it compare, sire?” Tikani sips his ale. “Skimmers to interceptors.”
“I think I’m staying an interceptor guy,” Grant says. “I’m too used to being able to stick to whatever orientation I want indefinitely. Gravity is a drag, no pun intended.”
They’re dr...
2025-03-10 06:12:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe silence stretches following Sykora’s pronouncement.
When the Baroness finally speaks, her words are tight and strained with anger. “You’re bluffing.”
“I have evidence of your treason,” Sykora says. “Treason not only to the Empire and the Empress but to me. <...
2025-03-08 04:52:43 +0000 UTC View PostThe breach pod drops from sweep with a fizzing splash of radiance that smears the firmament like pastel. Its corkscrew sail, sprouted from its prow like a unicorn horn, folds and rebounds into its bulk as it coasts on mad momentum into Viscountess Lorimare’s voidliner.
The PD membranes of...
2025-03-07 05:15:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Thank you for your patience, ladies.” Sykora strides onto the deck. Her command group rises to their feet (except for Waian, who’s texting someone). “The Prince Consort and I had an emergency we needed to address.”
“I banged my head on the door,” Grant adds.
Hyax smirks...
2025-03-02 23:04:25 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks!
The first volume of Princess of the Void is now finished on scribblehub, so here's an ePub version of it for your offline reading pleasure.
Usual terms apply--this was automatically converted so there might be big glitches.
2025-03-01 17:05:47 +0000 UTC View PostSykora cracks the cap on an oblong water bottle from the break room’s pill-shaped fridge. “I won’t waste anyone’s time. An individual in my skybox was compelled into an attempt on the life of Azkaii Trimond. I’m now firmly convinced that the deaths within the Trimond clan are assassinat...
2025-02-28 20:23:43 +0000 UTC View PostGrant slams into Thror’s chest. The gun flies wide. A bright blue flash. A piercing scream. The human bears the smaller Amadari to the ground and slams him flat onto his back. Four sets of claws dig into him, his chest and his sides, and Grant hisses in pain as Thror twists the arm pinning the ...
2025-02-27 03:43:35 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks!
Princess of the Void volume 2 is about 2/3rds finished at this point. I reckon I'll have it done by the middle of March.
I have a few ideas for where to go with volume 3 and would love to hear from you, my wonderful patrons, about which of these early-stem ideas sound most...
2025-02-26 20:06:27 +0000 UTC View PostThe thunderous roar of the engines and the crowd intermingles for only a moment as the skimmers streak away across the coral sky. Then a dozen dueling soundtracks kick back in from the raucous underclass celebrations. The upper half of the skybox window has become a readout of progress and positi...
2025-02-25 22:38:16 +0000 UTC View Post“Pit crews are going to be down here soon. So we gotta work quick.” Waian leads Grant through a dazzling multicolored reef of skimmers, lit by the lustrous red sky of Ptolek on the other side of the hangar. The roaring wind, even muted by the hangar membrane, intermingles with the creak of th...
2025-02-23 17:43:10 +0000 UTC View Post